Category: foodie

One day, I checked Instagram and stumbled onto a food blogger who regularly posts. His post displayed some sort of dessert. But, it was something I have not seen before. Inside his cup, there were rolls of ice cream topped with whipped cream, fudge, brownies, and a wafer. I remember seeing this before when a friend on Facebook posted this video at New York where a worker was making ice cream in what appears to look like a grill but frozen! On the surface, that worker poured milk as if you were making pancakes. After a minute or so, it was frozen. He used a spatula to roll up the frozen milk and place it in a cup. The thought of that kind of dessert was mindboggling, and I wondered if that will be brought to SoCal. A few months later and Chelo Creamery opened!

When Chelo Creamery first opened, I drove by since I worked nearby and saw it packed. I thought it was not a big deal and thought that people were hanging around the surrounding area. My girlfriend and I decided to get Half and Half one day, which is located next to Chelo. I said, “Wait, do you mind if I check out Chelo?” She replied with a nod and we headed inside. Upon heading to the counter, one of the workers at the registered stated that there is a 45-minute wait if I decide to get their signature Chelo Rolls. In my head, I said “F*** that!” and we left for Half and Half instead. We decided we will come back at another time outside peak hours. So, we went on a Saturday afternoon.

The wait was about 15 minutes, which is not as bad as our previous visit. I ordered “Ballin’ on a Fudge It” and my girlfriend ordered “Good-Zooky”. After a 20-minute wait, we finally received our orders! Before digging into our dessert, we paused and took photos for Instagram-sake. After 5 minutes, we were ready to get these desserts in our mouths. Upon taking my first taste of my order, I felt satisfied. It did not “WOW!” me nor left me feeling cheated. I did feel like I had better ice cream at other places. My girlfriend had the same sentiments as I did. Although, her order tasted better than mine and I felt envious. I do know that Chelo Creamery isn’t about its taste. It is about making desserts look good, at which they excel at.

Lately, they released a soft serve yogurt filled taiyaki. I did not get a chance to try it yet, but I will one day! Until then, if you are around the area, I would recommend trying this at least once. However, I highly recommend visiting between lunch and dinner to avoid long waits.

Author’s Note: Originally written on 5/19/2015 on Yelp with some grammar edits. Images courtesy of Yelp.

Sushi4u, not known for its logo design, but the service more than makes up for it. After a long day of shopping, and before having some fun with board games, my friends and I were craving sushi. Since we were around Brea, we wanted a sushi restaurant that will fulfill our cravings. We were not feeling Kula as it’s nothing new to us. We weren’t feeling Sushi In Motion either even though they have a good selection of sushi. Instead of teasing ourselves by reading some reviews, our mouths were salivating to have sushi. We wanted some damn good sushi, and our search on Yelp resulted here.

At first glance, Sushi4u looks like a dinky restaurant still in process of being constructed. Don’t let that fool you, though, on the inside, it’s a restaurant with huge spacing to fit big parties if needed. There’s no loud music blasting out the speakers when it’s someone’s birthday like other AYCE restaurants, and TVs with sports on to accommodate a male companion if any ladies are going with their man.

Upon entering the restaurant, my friends and I were greeted by everyone in the restaurant. Surprisingly on a Saturday night, the restaurant was not busy so we have seated right away. Our waitress asked if it were our first time eating at their restaurant, to which we replied “YES!” Afterward, she showed us their sushi offerings and gave us suggestions. When we were deciding what to pick, our waitress did not want to leave us hungry and served us some edamame in the meantime. That sort of offering made me feel like it was home. It was not served chilled like other restaurants and was warm and not too salty. After much deliberation, we decided to get 4 mouthfuls of salmon, a couple of specialty rolls, and a bit more sushi.

Are you hungry now?

When we got our food, we munched on it like savage beasts. However, we noticed that the way they served us our food seemed unique. For example, the salmon came with onions and cilantro on top — no other sushi restaurant served it that way. We thought it looked fancier that way, did not change the taste of the salmon, but we preferred not to have the toppings over it on our next round. We also received spider roll, which was decently good and the soft shell crab was crunchy. We also got some tuna, baked salmon, uni, and yellowtail to remember a few. Those tasted as you would expect for an AYCE.

The difference between this place and other AYCE restaurants is the service they provided. They were very attentive when we needed anything, and fast at it. They were also very nice, and let us know what sushi to try based on what we commonly liked. For anyone that is on the fence about going here, I would say it’s worth a trip not for the food, but for the service. I will definitely stop by if I am around the area and craving sushi again.